I always love it when I get to do one of my favorite things on Earth: hang out with fellow writers. My colleague and best bud from the Hillsborough Children’s Book Festival, Yvonne Ventresca, put together this fun breakfast social for the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators so I headed out to Chatham with one of my favorite writers from my town to check it out. We sat around in a small-town luncheonette and talked shop… it was divine! Here’s a pic from the event (below).

Yvonne Ventresca, our hostess, wrote the very timely PANDEMIC. It’s about the effects of an outbreak on a regular teenage girl and really makes you think about preparedness (It also happens to just be a really fun read. Learn more about it: Click here). It was interesting to hear her publishing story. I also got to meet lots of other writers in various states of writing/finding an agent/being published. Writers are the best!

If you’re an aspiring MG/YA or picture book author and you haven’t yet joined SCBWI, hop on it! It’s a great group that offers networking, conferences and lots of support for the submissions process and beyond.